Scared to death. Skipped heartbeats.

[Butterflies 0]

I am a 43 year old female who has been dealing with what I guess is called ectopic heartbeats. Where it feels like my heart is skipping beats. It started right before Easter. I've dealt with them before but never on this scale. They are strong at times. And continuous. Sometimes days on end. I'll get a break for three or four days and then they come back. I have no insurance and not much money. I first went to a doctor and it cost me 145. Not bad. She told me after hearing about all my recent stress and anxiety that she thought that's what was causing it. She prescribed me busbars. 25 MG twice a day. I called back the next day to ask when she thought they might subside and she prescribed me a beta blocker. A week later, they were strong again so I went to the ER. They did an EKG, a chest xray and a CBC. Everything came back fine and he said if I got any concerning symptoms like chest pain, dizziness, etc. To come back in. I was still having issues a while later and I couldn't go back to my original doc because I didn't have another 145$ so I found one who excepted payments. She asked me questions and typed stuff on her computer, then had them draw blood. She also had me wear a halter ( haven't gotten the results back on that yet). This was two Fridays ago. Her nurse called Monday to say all labs came back fine except my iron may be low so could they do some more labs. I said yes and the nurse calls back two days later and tells me my iron was a little low and they wanted me to get a scope to makes sure there was no internal bleeding. So now I'm scheduled to talk to the doctor who will do the scope next Tuesday.  I'm terrified. Barely able to function. Don't know just how low my iron was but the nurse didn't say anything about supplements or implementing certain foods into my diet. I don't have any symptoms that would suggest low iron except maybe cold hands and feet. No fatigue. No joint pain. No pale skin or pale under the bottom eyelids. I do get heavy periods here and there. I'm pretty sure I am in the perimenopause stage of life. I know she is probably just making sure all is OK but I cannot help but think the absolute worst and I can't stop. I have been trying to get iron back into my diet. Been drinking green smoothies everyday. They seem to have gotten somewhat better. But not entirely gone. Can anyone relate??

[Cuchculan 17]

Might be waiting a while for an answer here. Not the most active forum about. I am a member of its sister forum, anxiety space, which is even less active again. Joined here when asked to do so by the owner. 

Not actually going to answer your post. We shall see if anybody else might have some better insight into the matter. Think I have said all I can on the subject by now. Who knows. Somebody here might have went through the same thing. 

Are a few regular posters. Good at what they do. Can just be a slow forum. 

[MARC 431]

I have had PVC's (skipped heart beats) off and on for many years. I have had holter monitors, stress tests, blood work, echo cardiograms, and even a CT scan calcium scoring. They can be very bothersome. The cardiologist I saw who is 36 years old told me that they typically aren't concerned about them unless they happen thousands of times a day. A beta blocker may help relieve the symptoms as well as other prescription or non-prescription medicine. Magnesium supplements and 2 bananas a day may also help. 

[Butterflies 0]

Thank you both! I am taking magnesium and a beta blocker. Will try bananas next. They are pretty calm today. We shall see.

[Ironman 199]

4 hours ago, Butterflies said:

Thank you both! I am taking magnesium and a beta blocker. Will try bananas next. They are pretty calm today. We shall see.

Did the doctors say it was stress-related?

[Butterflies 0]

The first doctor thought so. New doctor says my iron is low. 24 I think she said and cutoff is 31? My iron storage is normal she said so she doesn't think this has been going on very long. She said the scope is to rule out things such as ulcers. She said it's more concerning if I am bleeding from my stomach or bowels so they want to rule that out. She finally called me back today thank goodness because I was so confused about everything. She said quite a few ectopic beats showed on the halter so she wants me to see a cardiologist just in case but believes once I take care of the iron issue she believes that will take care of the ectopic beats. I just can't stop thinking of the big C word.

[MARC 431]

Low magnesium levels can also cause PVC's. 

[jonathan123 2368]

Hi. Butterflies.  Palpitations were what triggered my anxiety many years ago, in fact over 30! I was at work and it frightened the life out of me. I wore out all the ECG machines in the County, and I still didn't believe them. Palps are one of the worse symptoms in anxiety because they are frightening, I still get them if a bit up tight, but just accept them as me. It's how I react to stress. We all have our most susceptible  organs and it can be headaches, joint pains etc. Very few get all the symptoms at once. Once you calm down they will go, but can recur when you are stressed or worry overmuch about them. Once again, the old ACCEPTANCE comes in.  Let the palps come. When you have been checked out just accept them as another little frightener in anxiety's box of tricks. Electrical impulses from the brain to the heart are put out of kilter by stress. Your heart does not actually skip a beat but has a double beat to make up for the lost one.

[Cuchculan 17]

There's that word ' acceptance ' again. This is the one thing I have been trying to teach her. Let them come on. What is the worst thing they can do? Make you feel bad for a while. But they always pass. 

[Doug97 19]

I noticed the exact same thing years ago, the doc had me wear a heart monitor for 24hrs, the results were that my "skipping beats" was totally normal.